how the west was won....

   

around 30,000 years ago the descendants of the Navajo and Apache tribes of New Mexico crossed the Bering Sea from Siberia and became nomadic tribes hunting freely in the fecund mountains and desert where the trendy town of Santa Fe now sits....

Europeans whose culture was far more "advanced" by the 16th century and were looking for "expansion", religious freedom and gold, rather quickly conquered with horses and guns... they killed and dispersed the indigenous tribes of the American West....precious few remain now on reservations and some sell "traditional" Indian handcrafts to the upscale tourists who now stroll the streets of Santa Fe...now Cowboy and Indian culture exist side by side happily trading with each other and both mostly forgetting the rather bloody and often sordid past...

Carlan Tapp (above right)  has not forgotten....he documents the current plight of the Navajo tribe with the modern day  incursion by the "white man" ... this time  armed with oil and gas rigs and dynamite  often destroying the land and lives of modern day Native Americans .....Carlan is a Native American from the Wicomico tribe of Virginia, but has spent his life here in the Southwest using  his camera as a weapon to fight back....his powerful black and white imagery is a testament to the once dominant culture of this region...

every existing world culture today has, at one time or another, "replaced" another existing culture....it is the way of mankind...a part of human nature that has moved us all "forward" ....in the "big picture", war and conquering has given us tools and science and "advances" that would not have happened otherwise...but men and women like Carlan who write, paint, and photograph  also recognize the loss, the sadness and the poignant nature of what seem to be historical inevitabilities...

Carlan, Jerry Courvoisier (yes, Mike's father) and i are now in Santa Fe teaching students how to think about photography...ways to use their cameras for something other than documenting their family vacation....photography as art, photography as reflection, and perhaps photography as a tool for social awareness....

i am curious where many of you "stand" with regard to photography as a "weapon"....there is a deep history in our craft of photographers who have devoted their lives to "saving the world"....what do you think??

since our species seems to move  forward  at a pace few of us can comprehend, does the work of Carlan and others have any effect, or are cultural events just pre-ordained and we all "saddle up and ride" ahead with no control of our fate???

www.carlantapp.com

www.questionofpower.org 

Comments

[Preston]

Ancestors!

[Wendy Marijnissen]

Hello David,

Using photography as a weapon is how I try to use it.
Not only to show the drepressing and aweful truth, but showing the change, the positive.
I've been calles naive quiet a few times already for my thinking.
And of course I know that my work won't change the worlds thinking.
But if it can touch just one person, makes one person think, makes them act or anything for that matter, it seems worth it to me.
I'm off to Brazil in a few weeks and will try to do some work with street children and kids living in the favelas.
I'm not even sure if I'll be able to really work there yet, but I'm going to give it my all to try.
I'd rather use my camera as a weapon and being called naive, then not care at all.

Maby see you in Perpignan?
Best,
Wendy

[Caleb Miller]

DAVID,

When I first picked up a camera, I was chiefly excited because I could now share my vision with the world... I suppose that hasn't changed, but my vision certainly has. Being present in the world means facing the hard truths, the uncomfortable ones that are a daily reality for most people of the world. Once I started learning about what's going on in my world, I had to act... photography seems to be the most utilitarian approach to that, at least for me. Working for the Daily Texan brought me into contact with some amazing people (Joe Bug, for one, with whom I believe you're well acquainted) who opened my eyes to the full potential of an image.

I'm still clumsy with my weapon, but I'm starting to understand what it's capable of. David, how do you personally make the tough choice of where to aim your weapon, what project to undertake? There are so many that are worthy. Is it mere opportunity and availability, convenience? Or something more...?

[Gui Galembeck]

DAVID

Weapon is what all of us should use in the hands to defend, create or just to show. Thinking this way, everything must turn into a weapon ! Great story, and incredible picture. I am involved now sugar cane workers that i believe may show something to people think. Not just the bad side, as Wendy said... development, improvements.
Good to hear about you !

Wendy

Be careful to use something as a weapon in Brazil ! I saw you are coming to Rio and Porto Seguro. if you come around São Paulo, and need help, or beer, contact me. Have a good time, Use your camera as a love weapon, make friends and you are at home. Kid loves foto !

abraço

Gui

[asher]

Hi David

I am reluctant to think of photography as a "weapon".

I view photography as a "diplomacy", a conduit for communicating ideas, emotions, history, awareness.

A weapon injures or kills. Photography rejuvenates, soothes, consoles, expands, elevates, inspires... even when engaged for the sole purpose of documenting a family vacation.

cheers,

asher

[bobblack]

DAVID/ALL:

GOT no time to write, but will come back later...so, i'll leave y'all with a long quote from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian....essential reading y'all....about THIS VERY TOPIC (David's story)...not photography....but, in the end, it's the same....enjoy...

hugs
bob

---------------------------------------------

"They entered the city in a gauntlet of flung offal, driven like cattle through the cobbled streets with shouts going up behind for the soldiery who smiled as became them and nodded among the flowers and proffered cups, herding the tattered fortune-seekers through the plaza where the water splashed in a fountain and idlers reclined on carven seats of white porphyry and past the governor's palace and past the cathedral where vultures squatted along the dusty entablatures and among the niches in the carved facade hard by the figures of Christ and the apostles, the birds holding out their own dark vestments in postures of strange benevolence while about them flapped on the wind the dried scalps of slaughtered indians strung on cords, the long dull hair swinging like the filaments of certain seaforms and the dry hides clapping against the stones.....

He watched the fire and if he saw portents there it was much the same to him He would live to look upon the western sea and he was equal to whatever might follow for he was complete at every hour. Whether his history should run concomitant with men and nations, whether it should cease. He'd long forsworn all weighing of consequence and allowing as he did that men's destinies are ever given yet he usurped to contain within him all that he would ever be in the world and all that the world would be to him and be his charter written in the urstone itself he claimed agency and said so and he'd drive the remorseless sun on to its final endarkenment as if he'd ordered it all ages since, before there were paths anywhere, before there were men or suns to go upon them."

--CORMAC MCCARTHY
BLOOD MERIDIAN

[SF Jason]

David wrote: "...ways to use their cameras for something other than documenting their family vacation....photography as art, photography as reflection, and perhaps photography as a tool for social awareness...."

Since I am not the kind of person who enjoys conversations about social awareness or politics (I lump them together)...
I would prefer to use the camera for art, and reflection.

If I was in this NM class now... my goal would be using a camera to cause a personal "reflection" that elicits a solemn emotional reaction in the viewer.

Surprisingly, this may be the same reaction a photographer would like from their work on social awareness issues. Hmmm....

So I guess I am more interested in capturing human emotion or compositions that show emotion rather than bring awareness to specific worldly issues.
Thanks,
jason

[erica mcdonald]

A few years back I was at a gathering for something called Wesak, a spiritual celebration with origins in Buddhism..a time for many to focus on the end of suffering and the realization of both inner peace and world peace.

A few nights before the festival, I had a dream in which I was climbing "the highest mountain there is", and with me, leading me, was a man, with a backpack of tools to help our ascent. As we climbed higher, and the journey became more difficult, he we reach into the pack and find the right tool for the moment. I stumbled several times, but he was always there to lend a hand, and the journey continued, until he had used the last tool..and the top of the mountain was in reach.

At the festival, I was invited as a guest to a special lunch for the speakers. I hadn't shared my dream with anyone, but when the organizer of the festival stood up to welcome his guests, he was moved to share his dream that he had had the night before. It was the same dream I had had, but he told it speaking of climbing with a woman, and every detail was the same, including the words "the highest mountain there is" and the description of the final tool..

My point in telling this so openly is that when I heard you acknowledge that the camera can be used as a weapon, I immediately thought of that backpack..filled with tools for different uses, each appropriate at the moment to aid in accomplishing the highest, for ourselves and for the world. Personally, I would rather use the camera as a mirror or as a light than as a weapon, but many feel that a weapon is a stronger tool, or maybe, just one they know how to wield for better outcome, and that is not mine to judge if their intention is pure.

[Quinton Gordon]

David,

Cultural, political, social, and environmental battles are fought, lost and sometimes won, on many fronts through the efforts of individuals with vision and heart.

Photography at its best is part of that fight and if nothing else has the power to confront us with the truth, and to highlight the plight of many and the nobel efforts of others to make change.

The key to any weapon is in the deployment of it, for images this is through the media in all forms including discussions like the ones you host here on your site. Photographers are often part of a grass roots movement, but the mass media means that images may become weapons of mass construction.

Thank you for the ongoing inspiration and energy you put forward.

Quinton

[Akaky]

HISTORY, n.
An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

PHOTOGRAPH, n.
A picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. It is a little better than the work of an Apache, but not quite so good as that of a Cheyenne.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

Of course, I may have misunderstood the question; I make no claims of omniscience; in which case I should say that I do have a Canon FTb that is all-metal and weighs three or four pounds and will knock five or six teeth out of the the mouth of any socioeconomically deprived miscreant who tries to take it from me. Put that thing on a bungee cord and you've got yourself one formidable weapon.

[lee Guthrie]

The old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind in response to your question. A recent example of how photos can change my thinking and cause action on my part was the one in NG about Shell in Nigeria and how they obliterated the local fishing economy with their drilling.

The words were telling but the photos were the most effective; the one of the woman having to purchase a fish skeleton with bits of meat to boil off because she couldn't afford a whole fish made the biggest impression on me and told the whole story. Here was a community whose economic structure was built on fishing and Shell had totally destroyed their means to make a living and this woman was buying pieces of a fish--and expensive too.

So yes photos can make a huge difference in our world. I no longer buy Shell gas; of course, now they want to build a wind mill farm on Maui and I am torn because that's a good thing right?

I'm not crazy about the word weapon either but in this case I feel it is appropriate to consider a photo a weapon in that it is used to defend the topic you are shooting. Using photos to tell a story that is less obvious, such as one that describes your own issues, is harder for me to understand and to achieve.

Documentary photos are powerful in their impact. There are many, many folks in this world that do not read the articles, they look only at the photos and the captions. Those that can get their message out with photos are a valuable asset.

Lee

[Gui Galembeck]

AKAKY

once in my hometown, when i was just a child, while a big soccer fight was about to ruin the game... I saw a photographer did something like that you describe with a Nikon F2 in the keeper's head, and finish the fight being the focus of why all shit happening. This is something that impressed me forever... Destination or not.... this F2 camera keeps with me now. with the spoiled back changed.

[erica mcdonald]

UGH I am about to consider using my photos as a weapon..am trying to scan for the project/assignment, which is looking at the face of the old neighborhood as it is forced to deal with all the new influences that a changing hood must embrace or reject..and as I am trying to scan these people's beautiful faces, the scanner is shaking form the incessant pounding of a giant drill working it's way into the bedrock so one more luxury condo high rise can be built (on the former site of a gas station, so as they pound, evil fumes waft into the air)..on what is to be Brooklyn's "Madison Avenue"..

[david bowen]

i wonder if photography is more of a constructive tool than a destructive one..
on the weapon side it can destroy propaganda, obliterate ignorance and vaporize doubt..
as a constructive tool it can illuminate a population, bring awareness to those in power and educate more than words, in many cases.

the visceral sensory link we have with photographs is also open to manipulation, of course.. 'edward curtis' and his project on native americans.. look into his funding and then his contemporary governments use of the work as propaganda.. to justify the 'cowboy fighting the valiant foe' image still belived by many, when the truth was the somewhat less palatable truth of ethnic cleansing.

more power to your friends DAH.. i hope the documentation and use of the photographs do good, constructive work on illuminating a population further..

ahh.. i want to delve further on this.. off for dinner with my future father in law..

eating
d

[Patricia Lay-Dorsey]

Photography as a "weapon." As someone who has been attempting for years to live non-violently in the world, I'm not comfortable with that particular way of describing it, but if you mean using photography as a tool for change, I would say yes, I definitely see value in holding that intention.

Whenever I use my camera as an authentic extension of my mind and heart, as a medium for expressing what I see as important in the world--even something as simple as my view of the bathroom window while sitting on the toilet--I believe that image has the potential to touch others and change their outlook even in some small way. No, I'm not trying to "save the world," but if I can impact it in a way that benefits the whole, I will consider my work to be worthwhile.

I was an on-the-streets peace activist for many many years. Did I change the course of world events? Hardly. But I still believe what I did made a difference. If, in the summer of 2006, even one person's attitude towards war shifted a millimeter after seeing this solitary white-haired woman in a mobility scooter holding her sign for weeks in front of the White House, then it was worth every bit of physical and emotional discomfort.

I feel the same about my photography. I will certainly not change world events, nor will I ever know how or even if my images changed one mind or heart. But I do it because I MUST. I could not live with myself if I simply remained a silent observer of life.

David, I suspect if you asked Carlan why he documents what he does, his answer would be that he does it because it is his to do. It is what he sees and must share with others. I doubt if he imagines his work will "save" his people or change the course of events. But he is changing minds and hearts image by image, and that is enough. I commend him for his dedication and vision. We need more like him in today's world.

Patricia

[Charlie Mahoney]

It looks like Bob Black is rubbing off on you David! With that "fancy" introduction of yours, I thought I was on the wrong blog for a minute!

It's a nice topic you've proposed. The camera and the pen can both be used as a weapon, but I'm not comfortable with the use of the word weapon as it relates to my work.

I prefer JN's use of the the camera as a witness. Document events as honestly as possible and let people make up their own minds.

[Harry]

More a shield than a weapon.

I try to be upbeat with any message I have as doom and gloom wears thin very quickly. Apart form my family pics I always try to have point and a message. Do picture make a difference? I'd like to think so and on good days I do, then there are days when it's all a waste of time.

Also taking pictures is the most fun I can have with my cloths on but it's nice to combine fun with something you think is important.

[Gui Galembeck]

DAVID / ALL

i am doing some edition work, with single images that i want to send to as a photo context entry. This not an essay.... but single. I did edit until here, and now i keep lookin this images and can't walk one more step. I need to find the best, impressive image that fits the "Brasilian Scene" theme. I am posting here the link to this images, and would appreciate so much if you give me your deepest opinions so i can put this selection down to one or two images at all. I will love some harsh comments.

http://www.galembeck.com.br/brazilianscene

[audrey bardou]

I do not see the photography as a weapon, a weapon is by definition aggressive, I see the photography as a means of questioning, I show a reality (my vision of the world) and I just hope that the public will wonder, I also see in the photography, the history which joins, and a pleasant means to cross(spend) a good moment, I do not want to treat(handle) that hard subjects, but also simple, light and cheerful subjects...
Kind Regards,
audrey

[dR]

At this stage in history, I don't think that photography can make a difference... any difference. Humans are numb to this form of visual stimuli and need other forms of media to be moved.

Certainly it is and remains valid art form.

[marcin luczkowski]

Yes the photography it is a weapon.
weapon against us self.

[Pete Marovich]

Hmmmm...

Does "photography/camera as a weapon" include bashing my D3 into the skull of my "editors"?

Oh, sorry... I am better now.

Grin

[Quinton Gordon]

David and All,

The choice of the word "weapon" has certainly sparked some good conversation.

By definition it is a confrontational word and is in some way perhaps appropriate when we consider the work being done by the many dedicated photographers working in the conflict zones of our world.

That said, I do agree with many of your comments, and have made it a personal choice when speaking either with my subjects or with students, to choose my vocabulary around photography so as to remove the confrontational tone. Words like "take" and "shoot" are replaced with, "make", and "photograph".

On the surface this may seem almost insignificant, but I am currently involved in two big documentary projects, one in the First Nations communities around British Columbia, Canada, and the other for the Victoria Hospitals Foundations, also in BC. Both projects require a significant investment of time with my subjects and the consideration around language and my efforts to make the process of collaboration. In both cases, my efforts to modify how I talk about photography have not gone unnoticed by my subjects and clients who all clearly seem to appreciate my approach.

But regardless of the debate around semantics, photography used constructively as a voice of reflection, reason, and change is a powerful thing and we as photographers have a responsibility to respect that power.

Quinton

[lee Guthrie]

dR,

I agree that the general populace is numb to visual stimulus and I would go so far as to say other forms of media fail to hit the mark with many people.

The main reason I rarely watch the news anymore is due to the canned and dramatized presentation. Watch any of the ABC/CBS/NBS nightly news shows and see how they each spin the same story and even in the same sequence. Watch CNN or Fox and try and endure the hours of inducements to stay tuned for some interesting story and endure hours of commercials and then another stay tuned or two before you ever see it (if you can stand it long enough to finally see it).

That to me speaks of the continued need for documentary photographers that can present the story truthfully and with photos that keep my attention. Photos that give me more than sound bites and canned drama.

Because life is not sound bites and canned drama. Life is full and interesting and eager to be shared by someone on the scene that is involved and interested in the story of life.

Lee

[cathy scholl]

ALL...

I haven't forgotten about my offer to post those shots from David's new book. After further discussion with him, I am not going to put them up at this time.

[Jordan Roberts]

Hey, this is Jordan. I'm just sitting here in Santa Fe with David and Carlan discussing this newest blog post before heading out on a shoot. Some interesting views have been posted already in regards to photography as a weapon. I will take some time to reflect the topic and post my opinion later. Best.

[cathy scholl]

MICHAEL K...

Check out the previous thread for blog trivia that includes you, me and Akaky.

Sounds like it could be a song...you, me and Akaky. :))

[cathy scholl]

Carlan Tapp is a great guy and a highly respected instructor at the workshops. Glad David is mentioning him here.

When I think about "photography as a weapon" it's not exactly in the way David is asking the question...More along the lines of Marcin's answer, the question brings to my mind the way people can either use the camera to bring them closer to their subject or to keep a distance "personally." It's can be almost like having a gun hanging over your shoulder. I've witnessed this personally...photographers "gunning down" their subjects.

[robert wiedenfeld]

http://droppingknowledge.org

[Lara Wechsler]

@erica mcdonald I know exactly where you are talking about!!!!!!!!!!

[robert wiedenfeld]

sorry about the bad link above here is the current one. for those that are interested sebastio salgado is part of this organization.

http://www.droppingknowledge.org/cms/fw/splash

[Wendy Marijnissen]

Obrigado Gui.
I'll keep your advice in mind. Although I'm not at all agressive in my photography.
Sadly I don't have the time to come to Sao Paulo as well. My time is too limited already. But if and when I return, I'll try to visit your city and maby we can meet then.

Maby like some people say the choice of the word 'weapon' is not totally right. I take it here as a tool. A way of showing the world what you see, what you care about, what makes you angry, ...

To me it's the best way to get to know people that I would otherwise probably never meet. It's something to help people get closer and get to know eachother. And that only happens when there is a level of trust and respect.

[dR]

Lee,

I agree with you and the further direction that you took the point that I was making about the esensitization of our culture and technology shifting our ability to care and respond.

I just don't have the optimism that you have on documentation and it's potential effects in this area to reverse or go against this trend. I am pessimistic here... I think that the continued explosion in visual stimuli and the tidal wave shift in technology and communication will continue to erode the general populace' senses.

Thus the photograph (including "documentary") now serving as an art form and incapable of serving as a vehicle for change...

I think that vehicle has become extinct.

[Lee Guthrie]

dR,

If it is simply an art form do you not also see it as an avenue to change the perspectives of any one that sees your art? If all your art in the form of photos does is make for an enjoyable evening, what is the point? Art in whatever form--photos, sculpture, painting, cars planted in the desert--changes people and their perspective. How can you believe that we as a race have become so jaded that nothing can change our beliefs and thus our future? If nothing else it is a history of the inevitable.

Lee

[dR]

Lee,

I guess that my feeling is on photography specific and it's ability to cause change - not on societies ability to change as a whole. I think that documentary photography is dying in favor of other mediums (primarily video) and that the "photograph" itself is becoming extinct as a vehicle to change. I think that if change is to occur, it is not a photograph(s) that will do it.

Now, photography as an art form, I think that it is alive and well... perhaps even expanding. It may be morphing a bit from the classic definition but still going.

" If nothing else it is a history of the inevitable."

Yes, I think so. And with Flickr, the internet and the explosion of digital photography... a massive cultural history indeed. So massive as to become almost non-relevant. One big mass of visual eye candy.

[Ana Yturralde]

Well... I always thought that a camera is a a very powerful 'weapon'. It put images to some realities that otherwise people will not see. Sometimes even words are not as powerful as images.

Btw David, and seeing that Wendy mention it... I'm going to Perpignan (Visa pour l'image) next september but I'm not sure about the best dates to be there (definitely when you are there are the best!). Profesional week is from sept 01st to 7th. I guess that week is the best time to go because it is then when you can present the portfolio to all the agencies... How long do you think it will take? Enough two or three days? I have a job on sept. 04th and was wondering if being in Perpignan from the 5th to the 7th is enough or not... What do you think?
Hope to see you there!
Hugs
Ana

[bobblack]

OFF TOPIC ;))))

Cathy, i first read DAH blog on February 28th, 2007....when told by Bruno Stevens at Ls..

http://www.lightstalkers.org/this_one_is_great__david_alan_harvey_blog

but, cant remember when i first wrote a comment (later), as i was a lurker for the first few months ;)))...maybe around late march/april?....

hugs

running
bob

[cathy scholl]

BOB...

I wrote more to you on the last thread...check it out. :))

I DEFINITELY did not intend to exclude anyone by my comment. I'm sure many of the regulars came at the beginning and never left...(why would anyone leave? where is there to go? :)) ) I just didn't know how to find who came when.. other than by seeing names with comments.

Akaky was not pleased to be called an "oldtimer" although I meant it as a compliment. :))

more hugs.

[David McGowan]

Ha! I found my first comment. I think I was funnier a year ago than I am now:

I think the idea of "camps" or "camps divided" is a common theme during early college years, in any school, in any study, closely examined in most bad coming-of-age films. If there are camps though, they are divided by a moon lit lake and it always sounds like there are frolicking girls on the other side—and I'm paddling like hell to get there.

It's an interesting topic for me because while I seek to maintain artistic integrity in the context of "I just happen to be shooting everything I'm doing," I'd still like to be able to afford a range of insurance, a mortgage, utilities, and have enough left over for travel and beer.

So while I'm still seeking my first paid assignment since going freelance, I'm pondering how to convey this idea to publications: the work that I like the best is the product of spontaneity and chance, far over anything contrived. It's the great thing about not getting paid, though—you can shoot whatever and however you want—and if you end up with one shot that holds to your artistic standards, then lucky you. I think I need to see the camp counselor.

Posted by:David McGowan | April 30, 2007 at 03:39 PM

[jay ott]

Well, the idea of using photography as a weapon can be examined on many levels.

I am not sure photography ought to be used as a weapon just because we have that ability.

Weapons are destructive regardless of whether they are used offensively or defensively. So I don't think anyone in this forum is really out to destroy things with it.

On the other hand, I am keenly aware that certain ideaologies and philosophies are indeed destructive and deserve to be destroyed.

So the question then becomes, is it wrong to use photography as a weapon in order to wage war against those whose aim is to be destructive?

Think how photography was used as a weapon in the second world war by the Axis and Allies. Which side was using it in the right way? Was one completely right and the other totally wrong? Or was there some in-between? Speaking of the grey area, should photography be used to emphasize our differences or similarities in order to establish some common ground?

It seems to me that as long as some people who will use photography as a kind of weapon for war against this or that, there will be others who will have no other moral choice but to pick up their weapon in opposition. Then there will be those who sit on the fence and get clobbered by both sides.

[Rafal Pruszynski]

Im all for saving the world but Im more interested in photography that reveals the inner world. So I dont know if it could classify as a weapon, certainly PJ or WPP style docu photography could.

[Rosemary]

I like Wendy's answer--"It's something to help people get closer and to know each other."
In my attempts to do documentary photography, I feel that I have been changed--that I care more about the people and situations that I have photographed. I can only hope that the images have had positive impact on others also.
I think of the phrase attributed to Hippocrates often used in the medical field--"First do no harm." With cameras as our "instruments" not as our weapons, I believe photographers can make a difference.

[Ian]

What else can an artist yearn for if not to make a difference in someone else's life, to touch and to move, to inspire and to hope, to laugh and cry, to live? This life alone inside, though quiet and often peaceful, is very small. It's the moving outward, the giving, that enriches.

[Rosemary]

I like Wendy's answer--"it's something to help people get closer and to know each other."
In my attempts to do documentary photography, I feel that I have been changed--that I care more about the people that I have photographed. I hope the images have had a positive impact on others also.
The quote , "First do no harm", attributed to Hippocrates is often used in the medical field. I believe that if photographers use their cameras as "instruments", not as weapons, they can make a difference--a good one.
Marcin made me laugh, and that is a good thing also.

[bobblack]

CATHY :)))

no worries, no worries, :)))...I was just playin' with ya :))))...i thought it was lovely investigation :)))...i just thought it was so cool that Akaky was here so early (i had no idea)..though, i "knew" him before at LS...ok...gonna leave a post "on topic" :))))

running
bob

[Jonathan Hanson]

W. Eugene Smith started the discussion of the "concerned photographer". He believed "the concerned photographer" focuses on issues that are important to them, harnessing the power of passion and persuasion. I dont know if I would consider photography a weapon, but a tool for someone concerned with what is happening in our world. I think its a means of expressing our ideals and values.

Tell Carlan I said hi... I assisted him back in SF at the workshops, he is a wonderful person.

[cathy scholl]

BOB...

Good! :))

I'm sure this will launch my career as an Investigative Journalist.

[cathy scholl]

p.s. BOB...

You saw the other comment in the previous thread, right?
I think the "fear factor" aspect is interesting.

Re: Akaky...I think his first comment on this blog might be his only words here that are totally serious!

[bobblack]

ok, "ON TOPIC" ;)))...

i've just come back from a night, with marina, of swallowing wine and gin and talking with friends beneath the lift of scattering kerosene lamp and tales of East Vancouver....on our porch, a substitute campfire, stories about division and time and gentrification and loss....so, okay, i thought, something for David's post....

I began this post with something from my beloved Cormac Mccarthy (from blood meridian, about the "how the west was won"...and now something, more appropriate to the conversation which has emerged)....

to begin the being....Mccarthy...

"“What does Caborca know of Huisiachepic, Huisiachepic of Caborca? They are different worlds, you must agree. Yet even so there is but one world and everything that is imaginable is necessary to it. For this world also which seems to us a thing of stone and flower and blood is not a thing at all but is a tale. And all in it is a tale and each tale the sum of all lesser tales and yet these also are the selfsame tale and contain as well all else within them. So everything is necessary. Every least thing. This is the hard lesson. Nothing can be dispensed with. Nothing despised. Because the seams are hid from us, you see. The joinery. The way in which the world is made. We have no way to know what could be taken away. What omitted. We have no way to tell what might stand and what might fall. And those seams that are hid from us are of course in the tale itself and the tale has no abode or place of being except in the telling only and there it lives and makes its home and therefore we can never be done with the telling. Of the telling there is no end. And whether in Caborca or in Huisiachepic or in whatever other place by whatever other name or by no name at all I say again all tales are one. Rightly heard all tales are one.”—Cormac McCarthy “THE CROSSING”

that's all we have, really, the tale, our tails, though shrunken to bone and clip of skin, defined by that clicking, our clicked by the need and necessity to speak upon our tales...what else is there to do but speak upon those things which pass, to speak upon those things which we see, to speak upon those things which innervate, which define, which give something too us that without we would feel forlorn....to speak up and out against the push of the rush of silence.....

I photograph for a very simple reason. I photograph not for (i hope) heroic means, not for the delusion that it will countenance the way and day of our passing, not as weapon but as vestige of what has passed through me, and by extension, each other....photography as weapon, shiiit, not that, but as tool, as language, as drunken-gummed expression of that which i can only offer as a banter...I have lived, i have seen, i have forgotten, and some stupid and inimitable constitution (we, alive, humans) hungers for that: to speak, to attest, to witness, to call forth that which is inside and will not, refuses to remain, subterranean....

let me begin with a story of a book, of an image....when i was 15, i stumbled across a photograph of a young Vietnamese girl and boy running along a road, stripped by time and fear and chemical burn, of clothes, and at that moment, the confused teenager that i was, was stunned...how was it that a young girl, whose life was so stripped bare by what was dropped upon her, what was befallen, could go so starved and excruciated into the moment of a day at the same time that i, clothed and tired and hungering for something more substantial, sat there at looked at her without fear, without the smallest modicum of doubt that my life was protected....that photo carved it's howl upon me at 15, how (now as an adult) to reconcile that...later, i thumbed my way to a book (Vietnam, Inc) that cold-cocked by 20 year old optimistic, liberal hunger for justice and righting of that which was wrong...from those 2 moments, a small calculus was born....

now, almost 20 years later, those images have not arrested the pain and sorrow that blight the lives of those who are beneath the weight of injustice, 20 years later, those images have done little to make a difference in the lives that i continually dream of being able to help....and yet, they have remained and marked my own life, the countenance of which has been to try, in the small dharma or my way, to make a small, not difference, but execution of a manner in which to live....

photography cannot save. photography cannot arrest the ineloquence and injustice and pain and horror that we continually bequeath our children and others children. today, before coming home, i read through NG and the story on Congo and the apes slaughtered, and I think of my friend Marcus B who has spent his life now trying to speak about what has happened in Congo...6,000,000....and yet, the world is numb and neutered and blind......the apes, magnificent brothers and sisters, are slaughtered and given covers...and what about the girl, whose brother carried her on a small blank of woven bent wood, after she'd lost her legs to an attack...she is nowhere to be seen in those images....she is unknown, but i have seen her...marcus has spoken to her...the world remains blind....

I admire those who believe that their photography speaks of that which has happened. I recognize that we are driven, that people are driven to not relent beneath the onslaught of our sloppy and ugly ways. That those photographers who refuse to yield to the blindness and the deafness, i stand in solidarity. But, it is not because i think photography changes anything. PHotography cannot change anything, nor does speak, nor does eloquence, nor does movement. However, what I believe is that each person must commit themselves to that of which they cannot do otherwise.

Photography bares witness, and this witness must be, not judged by it's efficiency to incite or convince or change, but must be considered by its refuse to remain mute. I do not think a single photographer will change anything, but i do believe that a photographer, just as any other, who believes that the value of their life is that they have no choice but continue to speak, even when the rest of the world remains deaf or dumb or swerved, it is because that is all we have.

Nothing that Nactwey or JPG has photographed has arrested the slaughter that we have perpetrated upon one another...but, that they have refused to yield, that they have refuse to sow their mouths and eyes shut, is for me the only real testament....

i am not so deluded that i think my work, or any photographer's work, can change what is unchangeable by material representation, but I know that the management of our lives, the witnessing of the way we live, the unyielding acceptance is all that we can accomplish....that each person who, in the face of fact, continues against the grain to say a very simple and succinct fact, that if not I who then, speaks more....it is not about lending voice to others, but about speaking upon things, for we have nothing if we cannot attest, if we cannot breach the silence which remains...

as photographers, we too often speak to the converted, the literate visulized community that suffers beneath the weight of images, beneath the benevolence of our hope to make things right...it doesnt change, but woebe the person that in the face of that stops their speaking....

we each, each of us, have a very small measure in which to pour our lives, and i'll be damned if i clout that spoonful with delusion or cnynicism....for, though i cannot hope to breach the destruction, i can know this: that it is by our lives that we measure and hope to pour things.....

my own photography is meaningless, but my life has meaning because it is connected to all things, it is connected to those i love and to those i do not know and i do not distill my life with the delusion that my life can change anothers, but I do not that my life, my work, the measure of what i try to do with others, can connect...because i am connected to all things around, in living and in death....

i have tried to live, as possible, with as much loving kindness and as much solidarity that i could, to harness those stupid wealth and gifts that i was given by stupid luck and fortune, in order to not give up the belief that if not without others, i am nothing...

my photography is not a weapon...but my life is a blessing that rests upon it's connection to all things living...

drunken pretense?.....

i dont give a fuck about photography, but i care about the living and if, at least for one life, for one person, for one young child for whom something I have or can do can bring light or food or shelter, i shall continue....

i see, for example, all of our work as that....not cause photogaphy saves the world, but because we have an obligation to understand how we are connected to all things...even when we most often fail....

nachtwey, for example, has not arrested war or famine or death, but he refuses to be buried because he he is apart of all that has entered....

my son, my wife....

to know, pointedly...we have nothing if we have not understood that simple thing....

broken to sleep

b

[Patricia Lay-Dorsey]

"Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally un-related. In order to be 'synchronistic', the events must be related to one another temporally, and the chance that they would occur together by random chance must be very small." (from Wikipedia)

What would be the likelihood that I would hear Native American singer/songwriter/activist Buffy Sainte-Marie in concert on the same day that David posted this thread about Native American history, Navajo documentary photographer Carlan Tapp, and the use of art as a "weapon" to fight exploitation and lies?

And who could have predicted she would introduce a song she played on the mouth bow harp by saying, "Throughout history people have found ways to make music on weapons!"?

To see a photo I took of Buffy Sainte-Marie from my front row seat at this free concert, go to

http://www.pbase.com/image/100330439

Patricia